Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party)
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368. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if there is a resource issue within her Department in relation to the processing of a disability allowance and invalidity allowance, given the delay in processing times; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [60725/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Disability Allowance (DA) is a weekly allowance paid to people with a specified disability who are aged 16 or over and under the age of 66.  This disability must be expected to last for at least one year and the allowance is subject to a medical assessment, means test and Habitual Residency conditions. 

Invalidity pension (IP) is a payment for people who are permanently incapable of work because of illness or incapacity and who satisfy the pay related social insurance (PRSI) contribution conditions.

My Department is committed to providing a quality service to all customers, ensuring that claims are processed as quickly as possible and that backlogs are kept to a minimum.

Processing times for new applications vary across schemes, depending on the differing qualification criteria.  Schemes that require a high level of documentary evidence from the customer, particularly in the case of illness-related schemes, can take longer to process.  Delays can arise if information is required from social security organisations in other jurisdictions and where additional information has been requested from the applicant but remains outstanding.

In addition, the staffing needs of the department are regularly reviewed, having regard to workloads and the competing demands arising, to ensure that the best use is made of all available resources.

The processing target for the Disability Allowance (DA) scheme is to award 75% of applications within 10 weeks.  Currently the average number of weeks to award a DA claim in October 2022 is 7 weeks and the average number of weeks to award a DA claim in 2022 to the end of October was 6.7 weeks.

The processing target for the Invalidity Pension (IP) scheme is to award 90% of applications within 10 weeks.  Currently the average number of weeks to award an IP claim in October 2022 is 8 weeks and the average number of weeks to award an IP claim in 2022 to the end of October was 7 weeks.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the deputy.